By Jason Apuzzo. • Libertas made news yesterday with our exclusive first look at the ‘uncensored’ version of MGM’s new Red Dawn remake. It’s conceivable that our review will be the only look at that film anybody’s going to get – which would be astonishing, but there it is. You can thank MGM’s new masters for that.
However, I wanted to follow up today by noting that MGM’s decision to alter the film – and digitally remake the villains into North Koreans – has been received poorly just about everywhere. The reason for this is obvious: there is absolutely no narrative reason to re-cut the film along such lines except to satisfy China’s market gatekeepers. There is certainly no real-world reason to depict such an invasion as being spearheaded by an impoverished prison-state like North Korea, particularly when the basic premise of the film is supposed to be our financial ‘indebtedness’ to the invaders. The last time I checked, we’re not indebted to North Korea.
The current spin we’re hearing behind the scenes is that the film is being re-cut to now depict the invading force as a ‘communist coalition,’ an undefined ‘red menace’ of nations, with the North Koreans featured prominently. What nobody seems to be asking is what such a coalition would be worth without the sponsorship of China. Or are they expecting Transnistria to do the heavy lifting here? Or maybe Vietnam?
Sensing how badly this is all going over, one of Red Dawn‘s producers, Tripp Vinson, gave a somewhat peculiar interview to Aint It Cool News yesterday. Here’s part of what Vinson said: Continue reading Cold War Update: More on Red Dawn, X-Men, Apollo 18 & The Kennedys!
